{"id":1029,"date":"2026-02-07T17:54:47","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T10:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/?p=1029"},"modified":"2026-02-07T18:07:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T11:07:50","slug":"trump-condemns-offensive-video-of-the-obamas-declines-apology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/?p=1029","title":{"rendered":"Trump Condemns Offensive Video of the Obamas, Declines Apology","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a> said he condemned a video shared on his social media account that depicted former President Barack Obama<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a> and former first lady Michelle Obama<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a> as apes, but he declined to issue an apology, drawing swift bipartisan condemnation.<\/p>\n

The video, which appeared late Thursday on Trump\u2019s Truth Social account, was removed about 12 hours later after widespread criticism. Civil rights advocates and lawmakers described the content as dehumanizing and racially offensive.<\/p>\n

\n

Video Amplified False Election Claims<\/h4>\n

The one-minute clip promoted false claims that Trump\u2019s 2020 election loss resulted from voter fraud. Near the end, it included a short, apparently AI-generated segment showing dancing primates with the Obamas\u2019 faces superimposed.<\/p>\n

Trump told reporters on Friday night that he had not watched the entire video before it was posted by a White House aide. \u201cI didn\u2019t see the whole thing,\u201d he said, adding that he focused on what he described as claims about election irregularities.<\/p>\n

When asked whether he condemned the imagery, Trump said, \u201cOf course I do,\u201d but added that he did not believe an apology was warranted, saying he reviews \u201cthousands of things\u201d daily.<\/p>\n

\n

Conflicting Messages From the White House<\/h4>\n

The episode highlighted internal confusion within the White House. An administration spokesperson initially defended the post as a harmless internet meme before another official said it had been shared in error and was subsequently deleted.<\/p>\n

Only a small number of senior aides have access to Trump\u2019s social media accounts, according to people familiar with the process. Officials declined to identify who posted the video.<\/p>\n

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt initially dismissed the criticism as \u201cfake outrage,\u201d describing the video as a parody portraying Trump as the \u201cKing of the Jungle.\u201d As backlash intensified, a separate White House official confirmed the post had been removed.<\/p>\n

\n

History of Racially Charged Rhetoric<\/h4>\n

Trump has faced repeated criticism over racially charged statements and imagery. He previously promoted the false claim that Obama was not born in the United States, a conspiracy theory widely condemned as racist.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The latest post prompted criticism from Democrats and some Republicans, including Senator Tim Scott<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a>, a close Trump ally. Scott called the video \u201cthe most racist thing\u201d he had seen from the White House and urged its removal.<\/p>\n

Several Republican lawmakers privately contacted the administration, according to a source familiar with the matter, while others publicly called on Trump to apologize.<\/p>\n

\n

Civil Rights Groups Condemn the Post<\/h4>\n

Civil rights organizations stressed that portraying people of African descent as apes has long been used to justify racism and violence. The NAACP<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a> said the video reflected an increasingly normalized use of racist rhetoric in political discourse.<\/p>\n

\u201cVoters are watching and will remember this,\u201d said NAACP President Derrick Johnson in a statement.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Obamas declined to comment.<\/p>\n

\n

Questions Over Social Media Oversight<\/h4>\n

The incident renewed scrutiny over how Trump\u2019s social media accounts are managed, particularly given his history of using online platforms to announce policy positions and share supporter-generated content with millions of followers.<\/p>\n

While Trump later acknowledged that the video included imagery \u201cpeople don\u2019t like,\u201d he maintained that he would not apologize, closing the door on further action beyond its removal.<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump said he condemned a video shared on his social media account that depicted former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, but he declined to issue an apology, drawing swift bipartisan condemnation. The video, which appeared late Thursday on Trump\u2019s Truth Social account, was removed about 12 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":1,"featured_media":1031,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"link","format":"url"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1029"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1033,"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029\/revisions\/1033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/al-ahwaz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}